


When the Day Met the Night

by onetruethree



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Power Swap, Canon Compliant, Element Swap, Established Relationship, Fluff, Multi, OT3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:40:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22568752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onetruethree/pseuds/onetruethree
Summary: Katara, Aang, and Zuko are dating in secret, but one day they wake up and their bending isn’t the same.
Relationships: Aang/Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 81





	When the Day Met the Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Simon_Northcote](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Simon_Northcote/gifts).



> For Simon_Northcote as part of the Zutaraang Valentine's Exchange!
> 
> I had a lot of fun writing this prompt and I hope you like it!

In the back of his mind, Aang remembered an old superstition that if someone fell in love with a person who bent a different element than them, that the two of them would switch elements. He always thought this was absurd; after all, bending is a product of years of training, plus no one other than him could master more than one element. Then, he fell in love and nothing seemed as impossible as it once had.

* * *

It had been a quiet day and an even quieter night when Aang first told Katara and Zuko he loved them. People from all around were curious about the fact that the firelord, the Avatar, and a waterbending girl had become accustomed to spending so much time together, and that led to not much privacy for the three of them. Luckily, Zuko was able to pull strings every once in a while that allowed them to have a day all to themselves. 

It was always warm and comforting being so close with his partners, especially with one of them being a firebender. 

After Zuko and Katara both fell asleep, their heads snuggled into Aang's side, he whispered to both of them, quietly enough not to wake them up, "I love you." He fell asleep shortly after. 

  
  


When he woke up, something was off. Or rather, everything was off. Except for him, everything was off the bed, including his partners. He looked to the side of the bed to see Zuko still fast asleep, drenched in water from an unknown source. Katara was next to him, equally peaceful despite the fact that the position she was in did not seem comfortable. Aang frowned and shook Zuko awake as best he could. 

Zuko woke up with a start, alarmed that he had somehow ended up on the ground. He looked to his right and saw Katara, and then looked up at Aang, confused. "What happened last night?"

Aang didn't know, and when they woke Katara up, too, she didn't know either. 

"How did you get drenched in water?" Aang asked, since that was probably the strangest thing he could see happened. 

"It's not like I was waterbending in my sleep," Katara joked, but when she took out her vial of water it was nearly empty. She tried to bend the water from off of Zuko and back into the vial, but it didn't move. She panicked. "Did I lose my water bending? Zuko, what about you? Can you still firebend?"

He stood up and tried his best to produce even a small flame, but nothing happened. Instead, he produced a gust of wind that shot across the room and was enough to push Aang back onto the bed. Now, it was Zuko's turn to panic. 

For Aang, though, that was when he finally figured it out. "That superstition. It's true." He whispered, incredulous. 

Zuko got closer to him, hoping he had the answer. "You seem awfully calm about this, Aang. Do you have any idea what's going on?"

Aang sat up and answered Zuko's question as best as he could. "There's an old wive's tale that might explain this. It basically means that if two," (or more, he had now found out), "different benders fall in love, they switch powers."

Katara looked at her hands, dumbfounded. She asked, "What powers do I have?"

At the same time, Zuko asked, "How long does it last?"

Aang didn't know the answer to that, or pretty much anything else either of them could ask. All he knew was that this confirmed that the two of them loved him back, and even though he was fine waiting on them to say it, it made him happy. "We should test them out. Now you two can have a small sample of what it's like to be me."

Katara realized she had acquired fire and earth powers, despite losing her waterbending. She  _ was  _ excited to try them out, but she mainly just missed water. It felt odd when she was unable to move even that small amount of water earlier, like she had lost her connection to something important to her.

Zuko had a very different worry. "I can't go out in public like this! How am I supposed to be Fire Lord if I can't even bend fire?"

Aang was worried for them, deep down, but he couldn't help but smile. He doubted something like this lasted forever, because if it did, he probably would've heard about it by now. "Well, if we can't go outside, let's stay here. I can help you control your powers, even if it only lasts for today."

Zuko and Katara looked at each other, their panicked faces almost mirror images of each other. Katara put her hands down and smiled for the first time that morning. "Alright. That sounds rather fun, actually." 

Zuko let go of his worry, too. "Okay. But Aang, did your powers not change?" 

Oh. He hadn't even thought of that before. First, he tried to produce a gust of wind, like Zuko had a little bit ago. Nothing. Water, nothing. Earth, nothing. Fire; nothing. Aang panicked for a second-- the Avatar suddenly having no powers definitely wasn't good. But, he could worry about that if he woke up the next morning and everything was still the same. He still had a feeling that this was temporary. So, he tried his best to stay calm and told his partners he would go get materials they could try to bend.

When he came back with a cup of water and a cup of dirt, he was surprised to see Katara with a tiny flame in the palm of her hand. 

"Aang, look!” Katara looked overjoyed to be able to bend fire, even if it was for a short amount of time. When she stopped focusing to look over at Aang, it disappeared. 

Aang thought it an odd sight to see his partners bending things he expected they never would be able to, but it was rather enjoyable. For the next few hours, they practically played with their new powers like they were kids again. Zuko had a hard time getting the hang of waterbending, but surprisingly, Katara caught on to firebending quickly. She preferred earth, though, probably because it was closer to water than fire was, and when Aang left to get her rocks to try and bend, she loved being able to make them levitate high in the air. Zuko missed firebending, but airbending was rather fun, but he found waterbending rather odd: it had always been a forbidden thing to him, and he had wondered what it was like for his partners. Water was secretly his favorite for that reason. 

Aang loved watching them like this, although a part of him felt bad because they wouldn’t be able to work on their powers for years like he had. He wished he could share his bending with everyone, and at times it felt a bit selfish that he was the only one alive who could bend all four elements. Other times, it felt a bit lonely. But, he served a purpose in the world, and that was a fact that he had come to terms with a long time ago. If just anyone could master all four elements, that would only worsen tension between nations, so it was for the best that he was the only one. And he felt lucky to be able to share, even for just one day. 

Soon, it got dark, and the three of them were getting too tired to stay awake and work on their powers any longer. They climbed into bed, and in seeing that they had neglected to pick the sheets up off the floor, Zuko tried his hardest to lift it off the ground and on to the bed using airbending. Instead, it just hovered for a few seconds and plopped itself back to its resting place. They all laughed and snuggled closer, this time feeling how Katara was actually the warmest of them. Aang felt just as loved as before, but this time, he had proof. 

To add to that feeling, Katara, in a state of exhaustion, said, “I love you two.”

Zuko answered back almost two minutes later, as if he had fallen asleep for the little time it took him to speak, “I love you, too.” 

Aang fell asleep surrounded by people who loved him, and he was sure of it. 


End file.
